Last Saturday the Roanoke Times took Bedford County voters to task, stating in an editorial that they only had themselves to blame for the current budget crisis that Bedford County Public Schools is now in. The local daily’s reasoning: Bedford County voters opted for Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell in last year’s election.

The flawed — that’s the kindest word we could think of — thought process went something like this:

Adoption offers a wonderful opportunity to bring children in need and caring supportive parents together. Each year, I have the incredible opportunity to nominate, for special recognition, families from across the Sixth Congressional District who have made a significant difference in the lives of children, particularly those who have chosen to build their families through adoption.

Finishing up week six, we have now passed the “halfway point” of the General Assembly session often referred to as Crossover. At this point, both houses have completed work on all legislation filed by its respective members. From this point forward, members of the House of Delegates will be reviewing bills filed by senators, while members of the Senate will be considering measures sponsored by delegates.

The Bedford Museum and Genealogical Library continues to provide these Black History spots that were broadcast on WBLT in 1988. Keith Campbell donated several audio tapes from WBLT. We have transcribed these and are publishing them here. In 1988 the Rev. Laurie Carrie and Pat Austin read the following on WBLT and they were glad that the tapes had survived. They recount how they took a large number of children to the station and each child also recorded spots. The Museum has not found the children’s tapes but maybe they will be found and we can use them in the future.

Washington D.C. and the mainstream media were abuzz last week with the news that Indiana Senator Evan Bayh is the latest Democrat to balk at running again. Bayh vented his frustration with serving in Congress in recent years, saying it was too partisan to work.

What he didn’t explain was why he waited until a day or so before the filing deadline to quit, thereby punishing his own party in its efforts to find someone to replace him.

Last week Dina Linkenhoker, president of the teachers’ union, took me to task for my column that appeared in this space in the Feb. 10 edition of the Bedford Bulletin.

In that column, I wrote:

The BCEA wants pay raises. When representatives appeared before the county school board last month, they chose to whine. Viola Henry told the school board that some of them have to take second jobs to make ends meet.

Gov. Bob McDonnell chose to reverse the freeze on the local composite index proposed by his predecessor, former Gov. Tim Kaine, before he left office. That formula helps determine the funding that each school district will receive from the state for education. When Gov. Kaine proposed the freeze, more than 90 school systems, including Bedford County’s, were going to be helped. Gov. McDonnell’s decision to reverse that decision cost those school divisions millions.

Last week, Southside Virginia got a huge boost from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – or stimulus bill, which I supported – with a major investment that will benefit our kids’ educational success in the short term and make our region more competitive in the long term. Two grants totaling more than $21.5 million will expand broadband internet infrastructure in our schools to help bridge the technological divide, boost economic growth, and create jobs.

The news reports are startling – multiple congressional offices announcing that their computer systems have been compromised by hackers, including Virginia Congressman Frank Wolf and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Pentagon reporting that their computer system is “scanned or attacked by outsiders more than 300 million times a day”, and the General Accounting Office (GAO) testifying that the U.S. information technology infrastructure is vulnerable to attack.

The Bedford Museum and Genealogical Library continues to provide these Black History spots that were broadcast on WBLT in 1988. Keith Campbell donated several audio tapes from WBLT. We have transcribed these and are publishing them here. In 1988 Rev. Laurie Carrie and Pat Austin read the following on WBLT and they were glad that the tapes had survived. They recount how they took a large number of children to the station and each child also recorded spots. The Museum has not found the children’s tapes but maybe they will be found and we can use them in the future.

een digging out of what has been the snowiest winter in memory, and while school kids are enjoying one of the longest unscheduled breaks in state history, the General Assembly has been passing legislation.

As a lifelong lover of snow, I remember how cool it seemed on Dec. 18 when this winter’s first major snowstorm hit us.

I was off from work that day in order to get a tooth pulled. I actually went in early for the appointment at the request of the oral surgeon and his staff, who wanted to escape ahead of the predicted storm.

Are you enjoying all the winter? I’ve had to shovel global warming out of my driveway two weekends in a row, and what we got the last time was nothing compared with what folks in other parts of the Commonwealth experienced.

How about those high heating bills? I know one lady who lives in Bedford County who had an electricity bill that topped $500 for a month. She and her husband aren’t heating Al Gore’s mansion, either. They live in a doublewide.

atch out, the Green Police may be on their way to your local grocery store.

Arlington Democrat Delegate Adam Ebbin has introduced legislation into the General Assembly that would require retailers to charge shoppers 5 cents for each non-reusable bag issued to customers. It’s just another case of government sticking its nose where it shouldn’t and, by so doing, hurting the poor and middle class families the most.

February is American Heart Month and a good time to remind the increasing number of heart patients in Bedford and surrounding area that they are not alone in their recovery. Mended Hearts, affiliated with the American Heart Association, is a national nonprofit organization offering the gift of hope to heart patients, their families and caregivers for more than 50 years.